This is an update of a prior post that walks new users through the setup of a Simple Desktop Environment. This desktop funtions in a basic BSD environment; no wrappers or other cludges for pulseaudio, udev, hal, systemd, compositing, etc..

To get this desktop installed you will need:

1) A base OpenBSD install with a working internet connection.
2) Knowledge of basic editing commands and familarity with file paths/permissions.

The PC-BSD developers have started a similiar project. If that completed project imports easily into OpenBSD this may be the last release.

The changelog is fairly small.
1) Sylpheed substituted for Claws-mail as the default email client.
2) PcManFm removed due to instability. Midnight Commander with the ovidui skin is now used as the default file manager. Midnight Commander has the added capability to easily open an ftp server in one of the panels.

To start, download the following attachment to your home directory in your new OpenBSD 5.5 install. Ideally, use two terminals in the default fvwm; one to view/copy the README and the second terminal to paste the commands.

I have trialed this in a new 5.5 amd64 installation. I will gladly accept suggestions/pointers/corrections to the original post. If you find this to be of use and a time saver, please consider supporting the OpenBSD project.

Last edited by shep; 20th November 2014 at 01:12 PM.
Reason: correct pkg list in TarBall

I have no idea why people choose Openbox over Fluxbox. Fluxbox is saner to config (nearly plaintext!), better licensed, has much fewer dependencies, and actually has its own bar so you don't need to add yet another package on top (i.e. wbar/tint to openbox). And with a good theme, it's a pleasure on the eyes (I use the MurrinaFlux theme collection).

I second the addition of VLC. For those who like streaming video, like twitch.tv and the like, livestreamer (and livestreamer-curses): livestreamer will work with both mplayer and VLC.

Also, Xfe for those looking for a lightweight graphical file manager.

Pidgin?

You've also forgotten games! There's so many great games in the ports collection!

And I much prefer Thunderbird to Sylpheed, if only because I'm too lazy to learn something else.

(Full disclosure: I am the OpenBSD port maintainer of Fluxbox, livestreamer{,-curses}, and Xfe. This post reflects my workflow, scientifically proven to be awesome from many years of use )

My intent was to provide a framework that could be easily altered either during installation or post-installation. I personally use mutt/abook, mplayer without a front end, gvim and midnight commander.

I also like VLC but when went with gnome-mplayer to avoid pulling in the qt4 libs.

As far as Openbox vs Fluxbox there were several reasons I went with Openbox
For OpenBox the default local configuration file is in ~/.config and I was trying to centralize configuration files as much as possible. Also Openbox is utilzed in CrunchBang, ArchBang, LXDE and is the preferred window manager for the RazorQt project. Simply put, the chances of being able to import code from these projects into SimpleDE seemed higher.

Xfe is nice but it pulls in many dependencies, the audacious media player comes to mind. Default apps are easily set in ~/.config/mc/ini.

You can just edit SimpleDE55_pkglist.txt and substitute vlc for gnome-mplayer, thunderbird for sylpheed and xfe for mc prior to running pkg_add -l SimpleDE55_pkglist.txt

Likewise, the menu was constructed with at least one entry in each of the FreeDesktop categories to more or less serve as a place holder. I considered adding menumaker as a menu launched shell script but have not gotten around to it yet.